Day 14 - to Oxford

Phone call tonight, I took some notes, so hopefully I can do it justice.

Cathy has found her favourite place in New Zealand, she woke up and was in it (Kaikoura).
Went for a drive this morning along the coast, past little bays, gravel beaches, incredibly clear water (so clear there's no point trying to take a photo, of it, cause you wont' even know it's there), and looked over the water to snowy mountains.
Lots of seal colonies, including some on rocks just metres away from the carpark.
Decided they needed to stay longer, and had to get a souvenier. Ended up getting a Paua shell.
Had grilled garlic scallops at a van beside the road at about 11:15 (first lunch).
Then on the way out drove up to a lookout with a true 360 degree view, bays on 2 sides, and in between, green grassy hills.
Driving to Hamner(?) Springs, the wind was crazy, and making driving tricky. At the springs they decided not to go into them, cause the wind would have stopped from being nice. Had 2nd lunch - venison pie for Cathy, lamb pie for Barry, and blueberry custard slice.
Then went to a quilt shop with a farm/nature park attached (didn't pay to go in the park, just looked at the shop).
Stopped at an information centre and found out that the Lewis pass (where they were intending to cross the mountains, is all forested, whereas the Arthur pass has good views of mountains, so they changed their mind about which pass to use.
So, ended up driving through the North part of the Cantebury Plains. Rivers and Creeks (oops, sorry, NZ doesn't have creeks, they are all streams and brooks), are all shallow and wide and flowing very fast, with huge gravel beds.
Sheep are very dense here, and much (much) whiter than in Australia. (Presumably cause they get to wander round on beautiful green grass rather than dirt ;) )
At Hamner springs, they could have bungy jumped, or gone white water rafting or quad biking, but driving on the winding road with the wind was adventure enough.
Now at an almost empty van park at Oxford ... green hills all around.

They've had some interesting shower experiences while travelling ...
almost all the showers are a variation on only 1 tap ... the most annoying got hotter the more you turned it on (so if you only wanted it warm, you got very little water). One had a button to press outside that turned on the hot water, so you had 1 minute to undress after you pressed it, then 6 minutes of hot water (with a blast of cold to warn you when you only had a minute left). Several have needed tokens to get water ... including one where you also had to press a button for the light, but the light didn't stay on for as long as the water, so you ended up finishing the shower in the dark. The best was in Wellington (where they stayed for 3 days) ... that had good sized showers, with plenty of space (and hooks), in the changing area for each.

Hopefully I've got all that right, if not, I'm sure Cathy will correct it in the comments.

BTW: Anyone know how to say "windy (curvy), windy (lots of wind) road" without it looking like you've made a mistake?